This thread is going to incorporate three mortems here, all of which I just played today at the time of posting...
First off, I finally reached level 15 in Angel of Berserk and made Captain... Unfortunately, level 15 also turned out to be the level in which Knuckles (so-named for the Sonic the Hedgehog character of the same name) decided to kark it...
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DoomRL (v.0.9.8.10) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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Knuckles, level 4 Imp Lieutenant, committed a stupid suicide
on level 15 of the Phobos base.
He survived 45178 turns and scored 23317 points.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 153 out of 238 hellspawn. (64%)*
He was an Angel of Berserk!
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health -1/50 Experience 6508/4
ToHit +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +6
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Hellrunner (Level 1)
Brute (Level 2)
Berserker (Level 1)
Bru->Bru->Ber->HR->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [2/4] (45%)
[b] [ Weapon ] chainsaw (4d6)
[c] [ Boots ] steel boots [1/1] (89%)
[d] [ Prepared ] nothing
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] green armor [1/1] (87%)
[b] blue armor [2/2] (95%)
[c] blue armor [2/2] (82%)
[d] blue armor [2/2] (83%)
[e] red armor [2/4] (41%)
[f] 10mm ammo (x100)
[g] shotgun shell (x50)
[h] shotgun shell (x50)
[i] rocket (x6)
[j] small med-pack
[k] small med-pack
[l] small med-pack
[m] envirosuit pack
[n] envirosuit pack
[o] envirosuit pack**
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
65 former humans
21 former sergeants
9 former captains
28 imps
11 demons***
13 lost souls
1 cacodemon
1 baron of hell
1 pain elemental
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 4 he stormed the Chained Court.
He flooded the entire level 7 with acid!****
On level 15 he finally committed a stupid suicide.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You stop running.
You use a large med-pack. You feel fully healed.
You start running!
The baron of hell fires! You are hit!
The baron of hell fires! Boom!
The baron of hell fires! Boom!
The baron of hell fires! You are hit!
There are stairs leading downward here.
You enter Phobos Base, level 15. Suddenly monsters come from everywhere!
You feel a breeze of morbid air...
You hear the scream of a freed soul!
The former sergeant fires!
The former sergeant reloads his shotgun.
The former sergeant fires! Your red armor is damaged! Argh!!! Lava!
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
Before him 15 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:*****
12 of those were killed.
Some rumours though, say that the Cyberdemon was killed already!
Is he immortal? 3 souls claim to have killed him...
2 killed the bastard and survived.
1 showed that it can outsmart hell itself.
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*I began to panic around level 11 or so and, desperate to just make it to level 15 so I could make Captain and not have to put myself through this shit again, I fell back on my "I'll just run past everything" instinct...
**Lol, I die to lava with three enviropacks on my person... It really is a problem not being able to see the tile under an item....
***This was enough to advance my experience rank from Imp to Demon as well (note that I had already killed some Demons in melee in games prior, most of them AoB attempts)...
****After entering level 7 and getting the "in the state of Denmark" message and having enviropacks to burn (I had five on me at that point), I pulled the lever (only after killing everything in the room... silly sausage I am), turned on an enviropack and calmly made my way over to the stairs, pausing only to turn on another one after the first one failed.
*****I made many more attempts at AoB than is shown here, but by manually exiting after it says "you die!" but before the mortem comes up, I am able to avoid getting yet another "Knuckles, level 1 Imp Lieutenant, was killed by a former sergeant on level 2 of Phobos base" mortem...
Once that was done and dusted, I had a look at the new challenges I had unlocked and after having a look at Angel of Red Alert (quitting after deciding I couldn't be arsed, as I'm the kind of player who hates being rushed), I fired up a game of Angel of D&D on HTNR and, as others have said, it actually does seem easier than the regular game and my first playthrough was a smashing success...
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DoomRL (v.0.9.8.10) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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Shade*, level 10 Demon Captain, defeated the Cyberdemon
on level 25 of the Phobos base.
He survived 168191 turns and scored 94265 points.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 467 out of 471 hellspawn. (99%)**
He was a real killing machine...
He was an Angel of D&D!
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 48/95 Experience 46232/10
ToHit +7 ToDmg Ranged +2 ToDmg Melee +2
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Son of a bitch (Level 2)
Eagle Eye (Level 1)
EE->SoB->SoB->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [2/4] (44%)
[b] [ Weapon ] modified BFG 9000 (10d8) [60/100] (S1)
[c] [ Boots ] modified plasteel boots [4/4] (150%) (D)
[d] [ Prepared ] modified rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1] (R1)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] modified plasma rifle (1d8)x8 [40/40] (S1)
[b] blue armor [2/2] (100%)
[c] modified red armor [2/4] (47%) (D)
[d] rocket (x10)
[e] rocket (x10)
[f] rocket (x10)
[g] rocket (x5)
[h] power cell (x6)
[i] power cell (x50)
[j] large med-pack
[k] large med-pack
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] large med-pack
[o] large med-pack
[p] phase device
[q] thermonuclear bomb
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
91 former humans
72 former sergeants
15 former captains
69 imps
54 demons
56 lost souls
22 cacodemons
9 barons of hell**
1 Cyberdemon
7 hell knights**
31 arachnotrons
6 former commandos
2 pain elementals
5 arch-viles
8 mancubi**
5 revenants
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 4 he stormed the Chained Court.
He flooded the entire level 5 with acid!***
On level 10 he found Hell's Armory.****
On level 11 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
On level 18 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.*****
He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
Then at last he found Phobos Arena!
On level 25 he finally defeated the Cyberdemon.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You enter a big arena. There's blood everywhere. You hear heavy mechanical
footsteps...
Boom!
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits the Cyberdemon. The Cyberdemon
fires! You are hit!
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits the Cyberdemon. The Cyberdemon
reloads his rocket launcher.
You reload the BFG 9000 with power cell.
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits the Cyberdemon.
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits the Cyberdemon. The Cyberdemon
hits you.
You reload the BFG 9000 with power cell. The Cyberdemon hits you. The
Cyberdemon hits you. Your red armor is damaged! The Cyberdemon
misses you.
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits the Cyberdemon. The Cyberdemon
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
Before him 16 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
12 of those were killed.
And 1 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
Some rumours though, say that the Cyberdemon was killed already!
Is he immortal? 3 souls claim to have killed him...
2 killed the bastard and survived.
1 showed that it can outsmart hell itself.
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*Also named for the Sonic the Hedgehog character of the same name...
**That's really odd... There were more mancubi than there were hell knights... More barons than hell knights as well...
***Eh, the lever was near the stairs, so just for shits and giggles, I pulled it...
****There was an assault shotgun here, but I decided I neither needed it nor wanted it...
*****Credit goes to both a homing phase device and my plasma rifle... The former prevented me from having to face them all at once and the latter cut through the aracnotrons like a hot knife through butter...
Now I thought that was pretty good, but then I decided to go after my first HMP win as a step towards getting Major... I was going to give just a standard HMP game a shot, but then I figured, "if AoD&D is easier on HNTR, then it's probably easier on HMP too", so I fired up another AoD&D game, this time on HMP and no only was it too a smashing success, but I achieved my first full win since I began playing DoomRL... There was nothing left of John Carmack but a stain on the ground...
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DoomRL (v.0.9.8.10) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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Shade, level 11 Demon Captain, nuked the Cyberdemon.*
on level 26 of the Phobos base.
He survived 166678 turns and scored 174644 points.
He wasn't afraid to be hurt plenty.
He killed 659 out of 701 hellspawn. (94%)
He held his right to remain violent.
He was an Angel of D&D!
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 64/100 Experience 52691/11
ToHit +7 ToDmg Ranged +2 ToDmg Melee +2
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Son of a bitch (Level 2)
Eagle Eye (Level 1)
EE->SoB->SoB->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] red armor [2/4] (34%)**
[b] [ Weapon ] BFG 9000 (10d8) [60/100]
[c] [ Boots ] modified plasteel boots [8/8] (98%) (P)
[d] [ Prepared ] advanced rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1]
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] modified plasma rifle (1d8)x8 [0/40] (S1)
[b] blue armor [2/2] (100%)**
[c] rocket (x14)
[d] rocket (x14)
[e] power cell (x18)
[f] power cell (x70)
[g] power cell (x70)
[h] power cell (x70)
[i] power cell (x70)
[j] power cell (x70)
[k] large med-pack
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] phase device
[o] envirosuit pack
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
109 former humans
87 former sergeants
39 former captains
108 imps
62 demons
41 lost souls
24 cacodemons
32 barons of hell
1 Cyberdemon
25 hell knights
13 arachnotrons
1 John Carmack
7 former commandos
4 pain elementals
8 arch-viles
14 mancubi
7 revenants
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 3 he entered Hell's Arena.***
He left the Arena as a champion!
****
On level 7 he witnessed the Wall.
He massacred the evil behind the Wall!*****
On level 11 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
Then at last he found Phobos Arena!
He nuked level 25!
He defeated the Cyberdemon and found the TRUE EVIL!
Then finally in hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
reloads his rocket launcher.
You reload the BFG 9000 with power cell. John Carmack fires! You are hit!
Your red armor is damaged! John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher.
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits John Carmack.
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits John Carmack. Carmack raises his
hands and summons hellspawn! John Carmack fires! The missile hits the
baron of hell.
You reload the BFG 9000 with power cell. John Carmack reloads his rocket
launcher. Carmack raises his hands and summons hellspawn!
Fire -- Choose target... The missile hits the baron of hell. John Carmack
dies. Congratulations! You defeated John Carmack! Press <Enter> You
hear an explosion! You hear an explosion! You hear an explosion! You hear
an explosion! You hear an explosion! You hear an explosion! You hear
an explosion! You hear an explosion! You hear an explosion! You hear the
scream of a freed soul! You hear an explosion! You hear an explosion!
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
Before him 17 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
12 of those were killed.
And 1 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
Some rumours though, say that the Cyberdemon was killed already!
Is he immortal? 4 souls claim to have killed him...
3 killed the bastard and survived.
1 showed that it can outsmart hell itself.
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*There was quite literally one move separating a full win from a partial win in this run... When I got to the stairs in level 24, I had already faffed about and was worried my invincibility would run out after I dropped the nuke but before the nuke exploded. I still went though and lo and behold, my powerup holds, the nuke goes off, I survive and, as it turns out, the turn the nuke went off was the very same turn my powerup gave out. Fortunately, the powerup still counts as functional on the turn it gives out... Damn was that ever close...
**I was rather short of armour for quite some time during this run, having to make do with green armour, or even no armour at all for a number of "Phobos Hell" levels...
***Hell's Arena really isn't that difficult when you've already picked up a chaingun before you go there...
****You'll notice I accidentally missed the chained court... It did spawn and I did see the stairs to it, but ultimately I somehow got side-tracked and took the standard stairs...
*****Yea and it only took me something like four large health packs and two or three sets of armour to do it...
Well there you have it, I finally broke through the seemingly insurmountable barrier between myself and captain rank that was getting to level 15 in Angel of Berserk and am now, incredibly enough, actually finding myself having fun with this game again...
Oh see if you can figure out what this thread's title is referencing...